Fast Facts

Sang backup with her famous siblings in the Jackson 5 before releasing a solo album—the fifth family member to do so—though the 1980 self-titled effort achieved only modest success.

Was estranged from her family from the late-1980s to the mid-1990s, a period marked by several pictorials and a video for Playboy magazine, accusations of physical abuse against her father, a stint as a spokesperson for a psychic hotline and public pronouncements that charges of pedophilia against her brother Michael were true.

Reconciliation with her family and divorce from Gordon in 1997 were described in 2011 memoir, Starting Over, which shares the title of her comeback album released on the same day.